Of Courage and Strength
by SpecialAgentAMB
Summary: Sequel of sorts to Life Saving, meaning if you haven't read that, you won't understand this. After Ziva continues to act cold and distant to Gia, Gia tries to get her to open up to her.


_A/N: Just a little one-sie I came up with. Actually, it really won't be a one-sie, because I'm definitely writing a sequel to this, and if all goes well, maybe another sequel to that? We shall see. The quote Gia uses is one of my favorite quotes and is by Ambrose Redmoon, but the second half of it is original, and believe I made it up (I dreamt it, which means it might have been on TV or something, so if I did not make it up… sorry!)_

_Disclaimer: No, still don't own NCIS. Gia is mine, and if you haven't read my story "Life Saving," this will probably be very confusing to you. So go read that, and review while you're at it!_

~*~

"What do you got for me, Abs?"

Gibbs walked into the lab, flanked by Tony and Ziva at either side of him. Abby turned around and grinned.

"Hey Gibbs!" She said happily. "I'm running the prints through AFIS now," She pressed a button on one of her many machines. "Scanning to figure out what that goo was on the Marine's coat, and I'm just about to start on analyzing the broken glass."

"Meaning…" Gibbs started.

Abby sighed. "Meaning I haven't gotten anything for you yet. Sorry Gibbs. Sheesh, you must be losing your magic, mind-reading touch."

"Aren't you supposed to have an assistant to help you press all these buttons?"

As if on cue, Gia ran into Abby's lab, trying to throw on her lab coat and place her bag on the ground at the same time, which resulted in her foot catching in the strap and her falling flat on her face. She scrambled up quickly while Tony, Ziva, and Abby tried not to snicker.

"Sorry!" Gia yelled, straightening her self out. "I took the wrong bus, or I missed my stop, or something, I'm not quite sure, but I ended up in a very sketchy part of D.C. that I really didn't know existed, but the bus driver let me stay on and even called me a cab, which got kinda expensive, but I'm here now." She looked up at Gibbs unsmiling glare. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize; it's a sign of weakness," He said, letting a little humor reach his eyes.

"Right, sorry. No! Not sorry. I'm not sorry. Sorry. Oh!" She looked up apologetically at Gibbs. He let out a small chuckle, then tapped the back of her head. He turned and walked out while Gia stared at his back, alarmed. She turned and looked at Tony and Abby's grinning face.

"Welcome to the family, kid."

~*~

After a long day, the team, Abby, and Gia were sitting in the bullpen, discussing the day's tasks. Somehow, the conversation turned to how Gia never drove before.

"I can't believe it… you don't have your driver's license?" Abby asked.

Gia laughed. "Not even my permit."

"But why? Driving was such a major part of teenage years!"

"Well, I moved from Baltimore before I turned sixteen, and really, if you live and work and go to school in Manhattan, you don't need a car at all." Gia explained. "In fact, before Tony came to pick me up, I don't think I had been in a car since I was eighteen, not including taxis. And trust me, I avoided taxis at all cost."

"But if you drove, it would make your commute so much easier," said Tony.

"Maybe, but the trouble is when I would possibly have time learning how to drive. I mean, I'm in classes from eight in the morning 'til three in the afternoon, I'm supposed to be here from four until whenever we're finished, and if I'm at neither place, I usually have some paper to write or work to do." Everyone, except for Ziva, nodded sympathetically.

Slowly, everyone started going home. Soon, Ziva was the only one left in the bullpen, catching up on some paperwork she had let pile up, much to Tony's amusement.

Ziva was staring blankly at her computer and allowed her mind to wander. She knew she seemed unfair to Gia, but she couldn't help not liking her. She hated to admit to herself, but she was jealous of the young girl; Gia knew Tony for her entire life. She knew Tony's past and his secrets, why he didn't get along with his parents, why he didn't want to return home. Suddenly, the elevator dinged. She turned and saw Gia walking through the door into the bullpen. Gia stopped when she made eye contact with Ziva.

"Hey, sorry," She said. "Didn't realize anyone was still here. I was just gonna leave this on Gibbs' desk," She held up a folder of papers. "He isn't still here, is he?" Ziva shook her head 'no,' and adverted her eyes back to her screen.

Gia nodded her head and walked to Gibbs' desk. She placed the folder down on his desk and paused. "You know, Ziva, when my parents… died, I was a lot like you," she said, not looking up from the folder. Ziva didn't look at her either, but paused her typing and paid attention. "I was stoic, I didn't want to talk to anyone… about anything really. I felt like if I talked about how much I missed my parents, how much it hurt me, how sad I was, I was letting them down. I would be weak. The last thing I wanted to do was have my parents' memory be disappointed me.

Everyone was shocked how strong I was. I put up a façade nicely… nobody really saw through it. The only person who could…" Gia chuckled, her eyes still downcast. "Was my grandmother. My tiny little Italian grandmother saw right through me. It took a long while, but finally, she convinced me that admitting that I was hurting wasn't a weakness at all…" She paused, glancing up at Ziva.

Ziva stiffened. She didn't like talking about her feelings or anything emotional, and she put up a very similar wall. Gibbs ignored it; as long as she got her job done right he didn't care. McGee was fairly clueless. She might slip around Abby once in a while, but the Goth would usually forget about it soon after. Tony… Tony had the ability to see right through her once in a while. He could pull down the bricks of her wall, and a few times he nearly got the wall completely down. But something always happened… he would say something stupid, or a case would interrupt them, and she built her walls right back up. Now she felt like Gia, who hardly knew her at all, could see right through her wall, and even if she couldn't pull it down, she knew there was someone else, someone… _weaker_, behind that wall.

Gia continued on, now sitting on the edge of Gibbs' desk. "You know that saying, 'Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear'?" Ziva didn't respond, but she knew that quote well. "It's sort of the same with strength. Being strong isn't the absence of weakness; it's just knowing when to let that weakness out, usually with someone you trust. If you keep everything bottled up, one of these days, it's just going to burst out of you, probably at the most inopportune moment."

Ziva thought back to when Gibbs lost his memory. She had acted indifferent to his hospitalization and his condition, but inside it had been eating her up. When she finally cried and let it all out in front of Gibbs, the relief she felt was outstanding. She had told herself that it was only because he regained his memory, but it was hard to lie to herself.

"Anyway," Gia continued. "Ziva, I know you don't like me much, but if you ever just want to talk… well, I've been told I'm a good listener." When Ziva still didn't answer, Gia looked down again, nodded, and started walking back to the elevator.

"Why are you here this late?" Ziva asked right before Gia reached the elevator. She hardly spoke above a whisper, but no one else was around so the sound traveled easily. Gia looked back, and returned to the end of the bullpen.

"Um, I missed my bus, and the next one doesn't come for another half hour," She explained.

"Everyone else left hours ago…"

"Yeah, I know. I couldn't find my bus schedule, and by the time I did, I realized I missed the last direct bus that goes to my apartment until 11:30. It's fine, really. I'm just getting some research done now downstairs… I always feel more comfortable in a lab anyway, even if I don't need any of the machines," Gia said.

They were silent for a few minutes, until Gia broke the silence. "Well, I'm going to head back downstairs for a bit. Have a good night, Ziva."

"Wait," Ziva called to Gia's retreating back. She turned around. "I will give you a ride home. Maybe we can… talk on the way back."

Gia grinned. "All right, thanks. I'll just go grab my bag and coat."

As she turned again, Ziva called out to her one last time. The two made eye contact, and Ziva smiled back. "Thank you."


End file.
